You Said, We Did

Thank you for your feedback via our parental questionnaires, Parents' Forum and other methods of communication.  Your feedback gives us vital information for improvements which we can act upon as soon as we can.

Please read below on how we have used your comments to further improve our school:

You said it would be useful to have somewhere quiet to revise and work later in the run up to exams where you can access a computer - we have now opened The Hub library until 6pm every weekday with a member of SLT supervising revision sessions where students have full access to resources.

 

 

You said you think there should be agreed statements from students about being ready to learn - we displayed statements agreed by all student council and gathered from students across the whole school in all classrooms

 

 

You wanted to highlight issues around mental health - we delivered assemblies on mental health for all year groups and there are now three drops ins per week to support students with mental health; school nurse, mode rehabilitation and CiST. There are also counsellors available from MOSAIC and Beacon.

 

You asked for compulsory enrichment to be on different days so you can attend different clubs - we changed the way enrichment is organised so students can choose which two days they have to attend.

 

You nominated students for the stars of respect award - we nominated them on your behalf.

 

You raised questions about marking and teaching in learning walks - we fed back to departments who made changes that they agreed with. 

  

You made some comments and contribution to our new marking policy. We have included some of your comments in our new whole school document.

 

You asked to invite speakers to student council - we arranged for students to invite the mayor, chair of governors and the chair of the Carers trust.

 

Year 10 students requested a trip to PGL - this is now being arranged by head of year.

 

You asked for additional clubs including baking and Public speaking - we arranged for staff to run enrichment sessions in these areas after school. 

 

You said a guide to teaching and learning/marking would be useful to parents in helping children with their work - we now provide a written guide regarding marking and teaching and learning for parents at all parents evenings and on the website.

 

You said information about advice services for parents would be useful - we provide links from our website and via Twitter for parents needing advice on a range of subjects.

 

You suggested information explaining the examination system and new grading and curriculum would be useful - we included this information in our AP letter in October 2015.

 

You felt students should be able to access Muslim speakers in order to support students in tolerance of different religions - we arranged for speakers from all religions including Islam to visit the academy on SMSC Day. In addition we arranged for a Muslim speaker to address students in assemblies, which was well received.

 

You felt it would be helpful for students to be able to access work experience opportunities - we now have an IAG advisor who facilitates and supports students in completing work experience in school holidays.

 

You told us information regarding student finance in KS4 and 5 would be helpful for parents - we invited universities and funding specialists to support our parents evening and careers fair, which parents were also invited to access this information.

 

You said it would be really useful to have some staff support in helping Year 11 students to revise - we held a wine and cheese evening to speak to parents about how best to support students studying for external exams.

 

You told us students should be encouraged to complete activities outside of the classroom - we made enrichment compulsory for all students in year 7 and Year 8.

 

You said the new uniform for Year 7 is a good idea but felt it was not necessary to include a jumper - we continue to provide a free uniform for Year 7 past our intended first three years and have no longer included a jumper.

 

You suggested it would be useful for students to be able to work on the same ICT software at home as in school - we provided access to Microsoft software used in school through the academy learning platform and the academy Microsoft license. Details of access were shared with all parents in our AP letter.

 

You said the RAGGING system on reports against targets was not helpful to some students and parents - after discussion with the parents forum we have amended our matrices for RAGGING documents and have included new measures indicating if students are on, above or below expectation.

 

You suggested additional prizes for prizegiving including 'best brownie' - we added appropriate prizes as per our programme.

 

You said students should have the opportunity to learn about first aid - we arranged for one-off certified first aid sessions for students over 14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You said the careers fair could be improved by them telling us more about the colleges and what courses are available -The next IAG day will involve assemblies from all local further education providers to provide more information to students about the options available to them once they have left the academy.

You asked for more form time charity events – We now do termly events with all forms

 

You asked for more charity reps – We now have 2 charity representatives from every form

 

You asked for a local charity to be sponsored – We now raise money for Signpost Stockport

 

You would like to see more charity within the community – we now visit Socially Yours twice a year to give flowers and Christmas hampers.

 

Year 10 asked for a whole school charity event – this has now been arranged and is being held yearly. 

You said you wanted to tell someone your stories in assemblies - we invited you to join Signpost in assemblies for Young Carers Week and share your stories.

 

You asked for teachers to support young carers discreetly - all young carers have Access Plans so that staff are aware and can support discreetly.

 

You said you wanted someone to talk to and express feelings - We engaged the specialist Signpost Counsellor

 

You said you would like meetings at school for young carers - Signpost Stockport now offers a drop in service every fortnight

 

You said you would like to set up an in school group so young carers who don’t go to Signpost can come - Mrs Fox set up an in school group to meet half termly, first activity planned for ice skating.

 

You said it would be nice to recognise young carers with awards in events like prize giving - Prizes were given out to young carers in our annual prize giving event and nominations were made for six young carers to Stockport Rising Stars Awards.

 

 

You said it would be helpful to have support in helping students to achieve their best at GCSE - we have organised evenings for Year 11 parents to receive advice on how they can support their child to achieve in their exams; particularly English and Maths.


You said it would be useful to have direct email addresses for pastoral managers rather than communicating through a central system - we included email addresses for pastoral managers in the half-termly Principal's letter and the termly newsletter.


You said it would be much easier to pay for school meals and trips via Parent Pay - we have now installed Parent Pay and are encouraging parents to take advantage of online payments.


You asked for the Principal's letter to draw attention to key points in student planners - we now include this in our regular letters from the Principal.


You said you would like compulsory enrichment to be on any day of the week so students can honour other commitments - we changed the format of enrichment to reflect this.


You said it would be useful to have appointment pages for the journal in the academy planner – we have included this for next year (2016-17)


You said you would like to recognise a student at prizegiving for consistently and quietly working hard and giving their best – we introduced a parents' forum prize nominated by parents' forum from a suggested pool of students for displaying these characteristics 


You said that the system that we use to grade reports can be misleading – we did change the way that we colour code reports based on expected targets


You said that you would like assemblies to sixth form students in addition to main school to our growth mindset drive - we did deliver this same assembly to sixth form students

 

You requested further information in relation to teaching, learning and marking at the academy - we did create information booklets in relation to teaching, learning and marking for key stage three and four.


You asked if new planners could be designed so you would only have to sign one page rather than a number of pages and that a parents' evening appointment sheet is also included - this has been addressed for the latest version of the school planners.


You wanted the Principal's letter to include reminders about key pages in the student planner - this information has now been included in the Principal's letter


You asked for teaching staff to leave their name on answer phone messages when calling home - teaching staff have now been made aware to say who they are when leaving voicemails


You asked for whole school letters home to be sent per household rather than per student - our data staff are now addressing this via our network provider

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